Earl Norman

The Earl Norman books are becoming extremely rare, and publishers don’t seem to be interested in reprinting the series. The only way some of us may ever have all the stories is for collectors to scan and type the stories into PDF to swap with other collectors. I have already completed PDFs of HANG ME IN HONG KONG and KILL ME IN ROPPONGI. I am working on KILL ME IN YOKOSUKA. If other collectors would do the same for some of the other books, we could eventually have PDFs of all ten books. Why not help? I can be contacted at fadingshadows40@gmail.com

Friday, February 12, 2016

Bangkok Tattoo

Sanchai Jipecheap #2:
“Bangkok Tattoo” by John Burdett. A lot is going on in this second novel of the
series. Sanchai is training a new partner on the District 8 Royal Thai Police,
Lek, who is a woman trapped in a man’s body. Sanchai is also working for his
mother at The Old Men’s Bar; catering to older Americans from the Vietnam era
who come to Thailand on tours. One of the prostitutes returns from a trick with
blood all over her, and high on Opium, claiming to have killed the customer. Sanchai
discovers the body of a huge American has been castrated, and the skin on his
back cut off. The prostitute, Chanya Phonychit is told by Colonel Vikorn to
sign a false statement, and then disappear; the dead man is a CIA agent. Sure
enough, the CIA wants to know what happened, and if Vikorn has any information
he isn’t sharing the truth with them. The victim was only the first, however,
for soon other men are found also castrated and their skin ripped off their
back. The clues lead Sanchai to a famous Japanese tattooist living in Bangkok,
but what’s behind the murders, and is Chanya in this deeper than she’s telling?
This was another good mystery, though a bit slow in the beginning, as we are
introduced to all the prostitutes and nightlife in Bangkok. Plus, even though
two of the victims were CIA agents, this was merely a red herring, as were
other leads. Of course, we shouldn’t have been fooled, as the title gives the
case away, it has something to do with the tattoos, of course. Still, a good
read, with interesting characters, and the author doesn’t try to teach you
about Bangkok, instead he gives you a guided tour of the city and it’s people.
Lots of fun.